The entire disclosure of Japanese Patent Application No. 2000-144888 filed on May 17, 2000, including specification, claims, drawings and summary is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printing press having movable members, such as a cover and a plate-replacing device, disposed around printing means, such as various cylinders and an inking unit.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a printing press, in order to enable maintenance or inspection of printing means, such as various cylinders and an inking unit, a cover, a plate-replacing device, and like members are movably disposed around the printing means such that an open space can be established around the printing means. These movable members must be designed to maintain an opened state in order to facilitate the above described maintenance or inspection of the printing means.
Therefore, as disclosed in, for example, Japanese Utility Model Registration No. 2560221, after a plate replacing apparatus provided in the vicinity of a plate cylinder is raised, a stopper pin is inserted into a hole through operation of a lever, whereby the plate replacing apparatus is fixedly held in an opened state.
In the printing press disclosed in, for example, Japanese Utility Model Registration No. 2560221, however, after the plate replacing apparatus is raised, a work for fixedly holding the raised state must be performed. Therefore, the preparatory work performed before maintenance or inspection has been cumbersome.
In view of the foregoing, an object of the present invention is to provide a printing press which facilitates the operation of fixedly holding a movable member in a moved state.
To achieve the above object, the present invention provides a printing press having a movable member movably supported between a first position and a second position, the printing press comprises a link member, swingably supported by a main frame, that swings as the movable member moves; a support lever swingably supported by the main frame; and engagement means for swinging the support lever by swinging of the link member caused by movement of the movable member from the first position to the second position, and for engaging the link member with the support lever to hold the movable member at the second position.
In the printing press, the engagement means may include a protruding portion provided on the link member; and an engagement portion provided on the support lever and disengageably engaging with the protruding portion, wherein as the movable member moves from the first position to the second position, the protruding portion comes into contact with the support lever and swings the support lever, and when the protruding portion reaches the engagement portion of the support lever, the protruding portion engages with the engagement portion, whereby the movable member is held in the second position.
In the printing press, the link member may include a first link member swingably supported by the movable member, and a second link member swingably supported by the main frame and swingably connected to the first link member.
The printing press may include holding means for holing the support lever at a hold-canceling position for canceling the hold of the movable member, when the support lever moves to the hold-canceling position; and canceling means for canceling the hold of the support lever by the holding means when the movable member moves from the second position to the first position.
In the printing press, the movable member may have a cover which covers at least a portion of a space between a pair of main frames when located at the first position and opens the space when located at the second position.
In the printing press, the movable member may have plate-replacing means which covers at least a portion of a space between a pair of main frames when located at the first position and opens the space when located at the second position, the plate-replacing means performing at least one of mounting of a plate onto a plate cylinder and demounting of a plate from the plate cylinder.